Monday, May 31, 2010

There is nothing more exciting than coming across a concert in progress. These children had organised the music and themselves to give this concert. they were so engrossed that they hardly noticed my arrival and filming. Thanks for the entertainment.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Julie, our student, is from Korea. On this day she taught the children the traditional Korean game of tu gu. In this game each child takes a turn at tossing a stick into a target. It's popularity was evident by the queues all morning. Thanks Julie.

With much excitement our skyping day arrived. After an early morning conversation with Miss Cotman we confirmed 10.30 as our skype time ... just after her class arrived back from the library. It was good ... but not perfect. The children told us about some of their achievements for the week, and we shared about our Marae trip and we read Gryffyn's Taniwha story. Next week we might try a separate camera and perhaps a microphone. we can't wait to keep connecting.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The children from Room 9 came to visit with Miss Cotman. They had a look at our wonderful animals, then they joined us at group time to look at themselves on the big screen. Friday is the day that we plan to start our Skyping ... 10.30am. So cool!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

As we have been studying the form and shape of carvings we had the pleasure of welcoming Urenuku to kindergarten. We experienced black ponga carving with a chainsaw and with an axe. Nuku said that his axe was his pencil and he used that to draw out the design. We had chosen a koru design as that was one that we had been looking at closely. With the carving complete the children were given the responsibility of moving the carvings to their resting place at the entrance to the climbing frame.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Over the past ten weeks we have so many happy sad moments as we remember our very special Logan. Today was Asthma Awareness Day, and it seemed like just the right day to unveil Logan's rock and the fabulous picture of the children engaged in street art for Logan. The lovely balloon fairies blew up the balloons ... and they filled the back office. Nearly everyone wore red. And the day was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. The bar-b-que fed the wonderful people gathered. Then it was time to unveil the rock. Three of the most important people in Logan's life were entrusted with the responsibility ... his best friend Caden, his big sister Sophie and his girlfriend Lauren. It was then on to the unveiling of the picture of the children and their street art.Logan's passing has given us such grief, but it also has made us realise what a wonderful community we belong to. Logan, you will always have a special place in our hearts ... and now in our sandpit too.

With Mothers' Day looming it was time to do something special. We had been donated some awesome glass candle holders ... and that started the thought processes. We found a book of raffle tickets. The children drew and cut out money, then lined up to purchase the lucky ticket from shop keeper Lauren. Jacqui (our boss) took on the job of drawing the two lucky winners - Connor and Lily. Happy Mothers Day.

Lily and Grace were among the number of children who tested out Logan's rock this week. They enjoyed showing Logan's Mum how they could balance on it. Some children dug a tunnel underneath it and some children just sat on Logan's special space. It is such a great way to feel close to Logan.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Today the rock fairies found a rock and delivered it to kindergarten to create a special seat where children (and adults) can sit to remember Logan. Logan LOVED the sandpit, so we think it is just the right place to sit and contemplate. Zac and Nathan certainly thought so. We will have the official unveiling on Wednesday as we have a bar-b-que lunch to remember Logan and raise asthma awareness. We hope that lots of people can join us at 11.45am for lunch and red balloons.

You may have seen an item on One News today about the monitoring of the noise levels in early childhood centres. You will see a monitor on our back wall that looks a little bit like traffic lights. The green light is OK noise. The orange light is just okay. The red light indicates that the noise level is too high and will damage our hearing. We look forward to seeing how it goes.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Our busy day on Friday included a visit from whaea Jill from Te Tahawai marae. Whaea Jill told us what the marae would look like and she how will greet us onto the marae by calling us in Maori. We then joined whaea Jill in a waiata. We are looking forward to our visit on Friday.

After assembly it was off to Room 9, Miss Cotman's classroom. For a while we have been discussing how we can build a closer relationship between Botany Downs School and our kindergarten. The school is next door, yet we don't always have time to connect ... but what better way to do it than through skype. The objective on this visit was to have to meet all the children and to have a look around the room so we would recognise everything when we skyped. Miss Cotman and her class sang us a song and we looked at ourselves on skype. We know that Miss Cotman is cool because she has a Mickey Mouse tee shirt, and Mickey is Bronwyn's boyfriend.The next step in our foray into skyping is to be a return visit from Miss Cotman's class (some of our ex students). From there we plan to skype every Friday. We will tell you about it o the blog. We are very excited.

Once again we were welcomed to Botany Downs School assembly. This is part of our transition to school programme. Today it was the turn of Room 23 to take assembly. Thank you for the great welcome, we loved the poster. We enjoyed looking at your planets and we liked your play. Josh said that he liked the National Anthem.

In the past weeks the children have been examining the patterns and forms in Maori carving. Angela worked with the children to mix plaster ... and when it was dry the children were able to carve their creation.

Throughout our programme we encourage children to participate in the practical aspects of related to the running of the kindergarten. In this instance Sean and Ben were assisting in moving a sandstone rock from the car to the kindergarten in preparation for carving. It was hard work! Sean, what a great job you did. Ben, what a great job you did clearing the way. Thank you.